Durban’s chef Sihle started baking at 9 and now cooks for presidents

Success could not have happened to a nicer guy. Radisson Blu Umhlanga Executive Chef Sihle Skwambane has cooked for heads of state, sporting heroes, celebrities, and families alike. He’s at the top of his game, and with a disarming smile, soft-spoken kindness, and talent that stretches to the moon and back,Skwambanehas taken the culinary world by storm — and conquered it deliciously.

Food has been a lifelong passion. It started far from hotel buffets and plated gala dinners. Skwambane said he was baking by the age of nine at his Gauteng home in Tsakane — and never really stopped.

“I’ve always loved cooking,” he said. This passion puzzled people around him. “My family didn’t understand or approve of a black guy wanting to be a chef.

[paywall]

Everybody was becoming a teacher, a lawyer, a policeman, an accountant. Why food?” But it was almost like it was all predestined. And it’s not like he didn’t try other avenues.

After school, he tried marketing, lasted three months, and, in his words, “failed dismally”. He returned to catering and hit the books at Durban University of Technology. After graduating, opportunities drew him back to Johannesburg, because at the time professional kitchens in Durban were fewer and far between.

[/paywall]